About 58% of UK businesses are planning to boost their cyber security investments in the wake of recent high profile cyber attacks on international businesses, new research has revealed.
According to BAE Systems Applied Intelligence’s latest "Business and the Cyber Threat: The Rise of Digital Criminality" report, more than half of businesses list threats from cyber attacks in their risk category.
Out of those who were surveyed, 67% of them considered organised fraudsters, who can carry out sophisticated attacks, as being the main threat.
BAE Systems Applied Intelligence managing director Martin Sutherland said: "Digital crime as a whole – a dangerous combination of organised groups of criminals using cyber techniques to carry out financial crime on an industrialised scale – is a major concern, particularly since the most recent wave of high-profile attacks.
"We’re starting to see genuine interest from British businesses who realise that the threat of digital criminality is something that affects their whole business and is not just an IT issue.
"As the number of avenues open to criminals in a hyper-connected world increases, it is more essential than ever that organisations think carefully about the actions they need to take to protect themselves and their customers as effectively as possible."
About 40% of UK respondents say a cyber attack would cost their company over £50m,with another 10% of them saying it would be over £10m.
A majority of respondents were also concerned about customer data loss after a cyber attack, followed by theft of intellectual property and reputational damage.
Of the overall victims of cyber attacks, 77% of them anticipate cyber to play a greater role in financial scam.
The surveyers put the risk down to a rise in mobile technology usage and critical operating systems in organisations.
